Thursday, January 29, 2015

On January 28, Victoria Polakoff from Whole Foods shared an easy Whole Foods salad recipe with Marquez students. (This and more recipes are from wholekidsfoundation.com.)

The students in both classes made their own individual salads by combining spinach, red onion and a mandarin orange to their own salad bowl. They learned how to peel and section an orange in the process. Several kids commented on how sticky the orange was!

All of the children were involved in measuring the ingredients for the salad dressing and then adding the dressing to their classmates' salads. We discussed the meaning and relationship of 1 T. and 1 t.
The students in Ms. Connor's class had just learned about abbreviations so this was good reinforcement!

This is an easy recipe that could be included in a lunch. The salad could be put in one small container and the dressing in another. Your child could be involved in making their lunch!

The classes collected the orange rinds for the garden compost bin. They also saved the forks, knives and plates that will be washed and reused again. Marquez students are learning about recycling and reusing by cooking!

Directions: (the Marquez adaption)
1. Place spinach in bowl.
2. Add sections of mandarin orange and other ingredients.
3. Measure dressing ingredients into a small bowl. Whisk or stir to mix.
4. If individual bowl, pour over salad and mix with fork. If large bowl, pour over salad and toss.
5. For a school lunch, pack dressing separately and mix at school to keep spinach from wilting.

About Me

I am the founder of the non-profit Palisades Cares which encourages community service. We also educate the community on environmental, health and other topics through workshops and other events. For more details visit www.palisadescares.org or www.palisadescares.blogspot.com.

As a UCCE Master Gardener, I network with the community to encourage edible gardening, enhance school gardens and especially encourage young gardeners. During the school year I am the volunteer garden teacher at Marquez Charter School. The garden blog is www.marquezschoolediblegarden.blogspot.com. I also hold periodic garden workshops for children at the Palisades Branch library and publish a kids garden blog: www.palikidsgarden.blogspot.com.